Westdale United Church’s overall design is shoebox-like, an ideal shape due to its effect on reflected sound. Architectural features, including pillars, wood paneling, wooden floors and an arched wooden ceiling, add a richness to the overall reflected sound. Porous absorbers affecting more high frequency sounds, include the carpet, wall hangings, and flags. Resonant absorbers including all of the wood found throughout the church affect the lower frequency sounds. Our group preferred the reverberance of this space. As a concert venue our soloist felt well supported. The amount of reverberation seemed to amplify her sound in a positive manner especially in her higher range. Breath and other extraneous sounds were not audible. The horizontal clarity was sufficient, but not the ideal. This attribute could affect the optimal performance of certain repertoire, but as ours was a passage from ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ the effect was found to be positive.
Wilson Concert Hall is shoebox shaped, a feature which scientifically contributes to stronger lateral sound reflection supplementing the direct sounds coming from the stage. The presence of the lateral stairwells, balconies and wooden panels in slat formation provide some irregularities to help disperse this direct performance sound. The architectural elements including the walls, ceiling, wooden floor and other hard resonant surfaces contribute to the reflected sound. The clarity of the sound was very good, both on the stage and from the stage to the audience. Porous absorbers including carpet, adjustable drapes along the periphery of the stage, shoulder height upholstered seats, and carpet are present and are important in absorbing high frequency sounds. Resonant absorbers in the form of the wooden panels have been added and are important in absorbing low frequency sounds. The audience space is on a slight slope making the area larger, which increases the potential sound absorption. There seemed to be little reverberation in the hall making this space the driest. Wilson Hall provided the most horizontal clarity of sound. Making each performance very precise would be important. Repertoire demanding this precise clarity could be optimally performed here. Our singer felt good support from the room. Performance noises such as breathing and other body movements were audible. Performers should be aware that stage sounds do carry into the audience space.
The Waterfall Room in the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning is fan shaped. The waterfall occupies the space where a conventional performance stage might be located if one were present. In this room, the waterfall itself is quite noisy, the sound of the waterfall seeming to come from everywhere, not just directly from the water, perhaps due to the architectural features of the room and its’ shape. Fan shapes allow for distant sound reflections from the high ceilings to arrive first. Although porous absorbers were present in the form of the plantings, a wooden paneled wall and people, there were many more reverberant materials off which the sounds in the room could bounce, including the floor, glass walls, high flat ceiling, pillars, etc. This room was the most reverberant of the spaces studied. Direct sound from the performer seemed to be enveloped by early and late reflected sound and affected the horizontal clarity of our soloist’s performance. Choice of the location from which to perform would be an important issue in this space. The center of the room was preferable. Quiet dynamics from our soloist seemed to disappear, but when the dynamic level increased, the sound was magnified disproportionately. No breath or other sounds could be heard from the performer.
concert venue our soloist felt well supported. The amount of reverberation seemed to amplify her sound in a positive manner especially in her higher range. Breath and other extraneous sounds were not audible. The horizontal clarity was sufficient, but not the ideal. This attribute could affect the optimal performance of certain repertoire, but as ours was a passage from ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ the effect was found to be positive.
Wilson Concert Hall is shoebox shaped, a feature which scientifically contributes to stronger lateral sound reflection supplementing the direct sounds coming from the stage. The presence of the lateral stairwells, balconies and wooden panels in slat formation provide some irregularities to help disperse this direct performance sound. The architectural elements including the walls, ceiling, wooden floor and other hard resonant surfaces contribute to the reflected sound. The clarity of the sound was very good, both on the stage and from the stage to the audience. Porous absorbers including carpet, adjustable drapes along the periphery of the stage, shoulder height upholstered seats, and carpet are present and are important in absorbing high frequency sounds. Resonant absorbers in the form of the wooden panels have been added and are important in absorbing low frequency sounds. The audience space is on a slight slope making the area larger, which increases the potential sound absorption. There seemed to be little reverberation in the hall making this space the driest. Wilson Hall provided the most horizontal clarity of sound. Making each performance very precise would be important. Repertoire demanding this precise clarity could be optimally performed here. Our singer felt good support from the room. Performance noises such as breathing and other body movements were audible. Performers should be aware that stage sounds do carry into the audience space.